When Julia Jaramillo walked into Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center’s new cancer center for the first time, she was so moved she burst into tears.

“It’s beautiful and feels like a home, not a hospital,” said Jaramillo during an open house that Sharp officials held Saturday for the community to tour the new $36 million outpatient center.

Jaramillo, who was treated for breast cancer at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center beginning in 2010, now volunteers at that hospital to help other cancer patients navigate the challenges of diagnosis and treatment.

Large windows and bird mobiles brighten the main lobby at the Barnhart Cancer Center— John Gastaldo

Large windows and bird mobiles brighten the main lobby at the Barnhart Cancer Center
— John Gastaldo

Douglas and Nancy Barnhart Cancer Center

Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center

769 Medical Center Court, Chula Vista

Once the hospital’s new cancer center opens later this summer, she plans to start volunteering there, Jaramillo said.

“For me this cancer center is really complete, because when I was going through my treatment, I had to go to two different doctor’s clinics. This is all in one and you don’t have to go to different places. To me, that makes a huge difference,” she said.

That was one of the primary goals of the new facility, said center manager Lorna McGrory. Before, she said, cancer patients were driving “all over town.”

“For a breast biopsy, we had to send patients to (Sharp) Memorial because we couldn’t physically do it here,” she said. “For small procedures, they would have to go here and there, and that becomes a big burden on the patient. If they have to be sedated, they have to have someone else drive them so it does become a huge issue.”

McGrory said having every phase of treatment in one place also improves communication among doctors. The Douglas and Nancy Barnhart Cancer Center was named for the philanthropic couple whose foundation donated $1 million to the facility. Douglas Barnhart said the donation was prompted in part by his experience with prostate cancer, which is now in remission.

Barnhart’s company, Makena Medical Buildings, constructed the center and will own and operate the medical offices in the complex.

The cancer center brings the latest in medical technologies and services into an environment carefully planned to not only meet patients’ medical needs, but their emotional and personal ones as well.

The 45,000-square-foot facility has an open design, inviting in sunlight and featuring several gardens for both staff and patients. Decorated throughout with local nature photography, a light sculpture and a fireplace, the center feels more like a spa than a medical building.

Amenities include a private entrance for returning patients and a kitchen where volunteers can bake for them. Next to the kitchen is a boutique where volunteers will make custom prosthetics and wigs and down the hall is an aromatherapy and healing touch therapy room.

In each of the treatment rooms, patients can plug in their own MP3 players or request music. Two rooms have a full wall of windows overlooking gardens. Nutritionists will help patients develop eating plans that complement their treatments, and web-based SMART Board technology will allow the center to expand its support group offerings to patients too ill to leave home.